25-Oct-2002 -- When leaving 23N 49E, I was not sure if we could reach 23N 48E before sunset so I was planning to set camp somewhere in the Dahnā’ dunes, a 30 kilometre-wide set of dunes going from north to south and linking the Nafūd and the Rub` al-Khāliy deserts. Lise and I knew the area very well as we crossed those dunes a little south from here two years ago. It is only 30 kilometres wide but the last 10 kilometres is made of very difficult soft sand and we expected some hard driving, pushing, pulling and digging work.

To help to relieve the stress we had, I got my first flat tire soon after lunch. And we knew the next petrol station was quite far at 150 km north-east. So we kept our fingers crossed for the rest of the trip as I was going to finish it without a spare tire but at least I had a tube in one of my spare parts boxes.

At one point we met a female camel that just gave birth. It was an amazing sight to see that new born life in such a desolated place. The mother was quite tired but always managed to stay between her baby and us, showing her maternal protective instinct. So we did not get too close and decided to leave quickly as not to disturb them too much.

As we were looking in our mirrors we could see a Toyota pickup truck coming out of nowhere and a Bedouin got out to take care of the two camels. Again I was wondering why they call this desert the "Empty Quarter" as you keep doing many encounters every time you adventure into it.

As predicted we got stuck many times but we managed to stop only 18 kilometres from our goal. We knew we had almost finished crossing the Dahnā’ dunes but it was getting late, the sun was going down quickly, and we wanted a nice sandy campsite, so we stopped at 5:15 pm inside the crescent of a lovely dune, at 22°59.804’N and 48°10.529’E, and we set camp for the night. We had a nice dinner made of baked potatoes and lamb chops cooked over the fire camp. It was lovely to have a decent meal in such a remote place and we all appreciated the luxury of it.

After a long day everybody stepped in his or her sleeping bag to get a well-deserved rest. During the night we could hear some snoring but it was impossible to identify the culprit as everyone did pretend they don't snore. That will need a more serious investigation next time we go on a Confluence hunt.

Friday morning at 6:45 after we cleaned our campsite, we took off to complete the last 18 kilometres that separated us from 23N 48E. As I had foreseen we had stopped only 3 or 4 kilometres from the end of the Dahnā’ dunes. Soon we were re-inflating our tires, as the terrain was now more of desert gravel plains.

We reached the point without any problem and realized that nobody has been there at least in recent days. We were supposed to meet another group of people led by my friend Mushtaq Mahmood and I was surprised as I agreed on letting him claim the first visit of that point. In fact the plan was to meet him here last night and camp here, both groups together. But as we could not cross the Dahnā’ dunes before sunset I thought we would at least see some remains of their campsite.

Anyway, we took pictures and video footage again before to aim at some fossils’ and arrowheads’ waypoints I did get from someone else. Those points were on our way to the next confluence we planned to visit: 24N 48E.